A long horned cow with its just born calf

Helena asked me to pick up a package she’d ordered online which had been delivered to a shop in the nearby town of Nailsworth. The sun was shining so I decided to drive over the high ridge between the Golden Valley and the Nailsworth stream’s valley. I thought I might stop off on the way back to sit still and listen for the skylarks and maybe even take a picture. I knew I couldn’t walk far but at least I could now drive.

After turning at Tom Long’s Post, where the five roads meet on the ancient common, I headed across the natural limestone grassland which is managed by the National Trust, where Commoners are allowed under ancient statutes to graze their cattle and horses. I was surprised to see a very large assembly of the cattle near to the Old Lodge inn on the common. Recently I'd thought there were not as many cows wandering about as in other years.

They were all freely roaming and grazing avidly, but they all seemed to be on the right side of the road as I saw it. Then looking to my left I noticed a single large cow lying by the old Bulwarks, the ancient earthworks associated with the old Roman settlements on the common. I wondered why this cow was there but drove on and then down the twisting route through the section called the ’W’, which is like a mountain road zigzagging downhill into Nailsworth.

I picked up the package, a book as it happened, which was to be a present that Helena was going to hand deliver to her mother in Scotland at the weekend. Then I returned up to the top of Minchinhampton Common and thought of parking near the Old Lodge. The cows were now on the move again and (there are hundreds of them roaming freely there) many of them were crossing the road ahead causing small jams of traffic, because they have right of way. If they decide to stand in the middle of the road then no cars can pass.

After about five minutes I squeezed through between them. I looked again at the lone long horned cow I’d seen earlier and saw not only that it hadn’t moved but that now there was a little calf beside it. I realised immediately that the big cow I’d seen had just given birth. I pulled over onto the grass within a short distance, actually where I’d planned to stop, and walked back about fifty yards to watch.

The cow hadn’t moved when I took this picture but the calf had just walked around and was now moving towards its mother’s face. I could see the delicacy of her movement and as the calf came close the mother started licking its skin and hair. A couple of minutes later the cow finally got to its feet and I watched it for the next twenty minutes as they nuzzled up to each other, and the calf searched out for the teat to start suckling on its first milk food. 


I felt privileged to have seen this newborn calf just minutes after arriving in the world. It made me think about my own significant birthday just two days ago. Apparently it may be a blip anniversary for me today as well, though that is rather an arbitrary event.